My meanderings through life, spirituality and thought...feel free to comment.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Chapter 8 – be practical

If religion were true, its followers would not try to
bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on
their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or
practical consequences. ~H. P. Lovecraft

At this point I have spent a good amount of time and text to
decry the problems of the modern church, but pointing out problems and
accepting them as “reasons for change” are only half the issue. As concerned Christians we must not only see
and admit the problems but we must begin to take steps to change the systems
within the church so that these problems can be solved. Unfortunately the church did not become
damaged in a single day and so it won’t be fixed in a single day, but by
beginning to take small consistent steps we can begin to heal wounds and lift
the church to what it can become; a place of practical learning, caring and
giving, where all are welcome and ministry, not business, is the order of the
day.

To make this concise I’m going to
break this down into three basic areas of concern: teaching, caring and
giving. These three concepts are what I
believe our churches should be founded on, as they are exemplified in the life
of Jesus of Nazareth. Teaching is foundational
to all other functions within the church; if we are not teaching the correct
concepts then we cannot expect the appropriate behaviors. So, what should we be teaching? When we look at the aspects of the life of
Jesus as we know it, we can see that his teachings covered very practical areas
of concern. The life of the individual
and that individual’s growth spiritually is foremost in importance. Each person is important, no matter their
status, wealth, color, creed or affiliation.
The single most important lesson we can learn from Jesus is to
completely cease to judge others. To
realize that each and every human being is part of a greater whole, and that
each of us shares the same internal and external struggles. Not everyone is plagued the same way, but we
face the same basic concerns. Humans
struggle with self-worth, with shame and guilt and with the need for acceptance
and purpose in life. Jesus makes it a
point to motivate people that he meets to deal directly with these spiritual
issues in their lives. The aspect of
forgiveness is a consistent cornerstone of Jesus’ ministry, and that
forgiveness is without strings, without measure. In every instance Jesus forgives someone in
the stories we hear, he forgives them before he instructs them on how to fix
the problem. He doesn't demand that they
change and then acquire forgiveness, which is sadly the state of Christianity
today. People must learn to be
“un-burdened” before they can truly begin to fix the issues they are dealing
with. The church needs to teach
forgiveness up front, no strings, no salvation, no hoops to jump through. We need to focus on the acts of encouraging
curiosity about spiritual growth, and give people the tools necessary to seek
out that growth. Our churches have
become assembly lines of “new” Christians, “save’em and set’em in a pew” and
that really is often the end of it.
Truly understanding and delving into the mystery of the teaching of
Jesus is a lifelong endeavor, and it is often hard to do. Much of what Jesus speaks of is esoteric,
symbolic and metaphorical, and without guidance in understanding these
mysteries, folks just tend to give up and listen to whatever rhetoric happens
to pour out of the mouths of those they believe to have some kind of
authority. Instead the practical aspect
is that we need to teach people to accept the responsibility and the authority
for themselves, that it is they who can study, understand and validate their
own lives. This takes power away from
the center, takes the danger out of centralized authority and gives the church
members the responsibility of ministry as a team. This book cannot fully go into the necessary
specifics so that will have to wait for further writing, but for now, it’s
enough to understand that we must teach what will move us towards creating a
loving, accepting, forgiving and unified church team.

Once we have begun to
teach folks how to understand their own authority and potential, we then must
give examples in how we use these teachings to care for our communities. The church should not be a social club for
those who fit in, or know the “secret” handshake. Churches have become hotbeds of social
institution, back slapping good ol’ boys, and fashion shows for the ne’er do
well. It’s this sort of business that
puts a bad taste in the mouth of anyone not fortunate enough to fit in to such
a fool’s paradise. The church should be
carried on the concepts of unity, openness, and true care for each and every
person in one’s community. This means
stepping across many boundaries that the church has erected over the
years. Who should be accepted? Everyone, including single mothers, gays,
Jews, African Americans, Muslims, junkies, poor folks, prostitutes, and even
the wealthy and elite. Church should be
the one place that you go and set aside your differences, and rub shoulders
with folks you might not normally ever speak to. Look at the disciples that followed Jesus,
fishermen, tax collectors, militant resistance fighters, women of ill repute,
doubters, fighters, some rich, some poor, but all brought together by the
teachings of love and acceptance. Our
churches need to be out in the community, not protesting abortion clinics, but
asking those mothers what kind of help they might need. We need to be motivated to attend gay rallies
and let folks know that God loves them, walk down the street and meet your
local prostitutes and instead of handing them a tract, hand them some money, so
that they can buy the things they need.
The care that the church gives out needs to be practical, not lifting up
cop out prayers or handing out propaganda, but actually getting your hands
dirty practical work. Instead of meeting
in a pent up building every week, meet at John Doe’s house and help fix his
roof, that’s ministry. Take your church
to the hurting people in your community, not to impress or get anything in
return, but to show that you really do follow the teachings of Jesus. Again, there are 1001 things that we can do
and not enough space in this book to speak of them all, but we must get out
there and actually live the life that Jesus exemplified, without that all we
are saying are words without meaning.

Finally we come to giving, but not giving
in the sense of a tithe, although that is included, but giving in the sense of
truly living out the life that we have been taught by Jesus. Over and over again in the Gospels we see
Jesus being approached by one person or another and these people always ask the
same basic question; how do I get to heaven?
Now, we need a quick interpretation here, because they are not asking
what you think they are asking. The aspects
of heaven as Jesus speaks of it are not some "pie in the sky by and by" sort of
place somewhere up above our heads. In
Judaic concept there is no place but this place, God is interwoven in
everything around us, and through us.
God is not somewhere else, not on a high mountain, or on a cloud throne,
but actually woven into the very fabric of our existence. When Jesus speaks of heaven he is speaking of
a change in our physical, mental and spiritual world. Heaven is not a reward for after death, but a
place that can exist right here and now, if only we could grasp how to bring it
about. So, how do we get to heaven?
Jesus answers this question in the same way every time, you get to
heaven by giving up everything that is holding you back, whether that is
riches, regret, doubt, fear, or whatever, unless you can truly let it go and
give away those things that distract you from following his teachings, you will
not create heaven in your life. When I
speak of giving this is what I mean, we are asked to give everything we are to
live the life that God has promised to us.
But our lives have so much distraction, so many things, ideas, and
feelings get in our way and we cannot seem to let them go long enough to move
past them. If we are going to be
followers of Jesus, we must take this last step in order to truly call
ourselves his disciples.

We must teach
the truth that Jesus gave example of, and we must care enough in practical ways
to live out that teaching, and finally we must give up all distraction in order
to bring about heaven for ourselves, our children and our communities. If we plan to be Christians, we must truly
follow that man from Nazareth, even if it’s hard, even if it seems impossible,
because giving up everything allows us to truly, finally, do anything.